The Associated Press
 AP Photo/Stephen Monahan via the Lindsay Letter Emergency crews roll a child to an air ambulance after four children were badly burned when a caustic substance burst in the cab of a pickup truck in Texas Wednesday. |
GAINESVILLE, Texas — Four children were badly burned Wednesday when a container filled with a caustic substance burst in the cab of a pickup truck, Cooke County Sheriff Michael Compton said.
Compton said the children’s mother, Cynthia Darlene Stout, was arrested on a charge of child endangerment after she and at least one other person left three of the children, ages 14, 7 and 4, at a cafe in Woodbine. The fourth child, an 18-month-old, was left with a woman at a nearby residence, Compton said.
The sheriff said the woman washed the infant down with water, which he said may have minimized the child’s injuries.
All four of the children were flown by air ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. A nursing supervisor declined to provide their conditions Wednesday night.
Compton said the hospital told one of his investigators that the substance that burned the children was sulfuric acid.
He said it was unclear why the material was in the truck.
“We do not think it was an intentional act,” he said. “Why a container would burst is the $64 question.”
The incident occurred about 4 p.m. Wednesday in Woodbine, an unincorporated community about eight miles from Gainesville, the Cooke County seat. Gainesville is about 60 miles north of Dallas.
Compton said Stout, 43, was apprehended trying to leave the scene. Cooke County Jail officials said Wednesday night they did not know whether Stout had an attorney. The search continued for the man who dropped the 18-month-old off at the house. He declined to identify the man because no charges had been filed.
Compton said deputies were able to locate the burned infant through witnesses at the scene.
“This is one of those kind of cases that really upset everybody,” he said.
He said people at the scene provided details on “where everybody went.”
“They tried to help and protect the children after they were left at the scene,” he said. “You could tell they were very much concerned about what had happened.”